Rising business costs for fishers 

“It starts with the basic costs of running a fishing business,” says Wez. “Australians just don't want to work on fishing boats, but relying on foreign workers, given the visas and training qualifications that they need, can be prohibitive. Add in the rising cost of fuels and other inputs and even if a fishery is doing well, it's hard to remain profitable.”  

As an example, he points to the Northern Prawn fishery in the Gulf of Carpentaria as a well-managed fishery, with healthy stocks and excellent catch rates. “But that combination of labour, fuel and product price is really hurting fishers.” 

Management costs for governments 

Fisheries management is costly, whether funded by governments or through cost-recovery from commercial fishers, as is the case in Commonwealth fisheries. 

Wez sees sharing the resources needed to manage fisheries as a major opportunity to reduce costs across the country. This could be shared platforms for licensing, data collection, fisheries observers or electronic monitoring databases rather than running separate systems across each of Australia’s eight marine fisheries management jurisdictions. He says vessel monitoring is one example where a shared management platform is already in place.  

He suggests streamlining management by delegating oversight of certain fisheries that span state and Commonwealth borders to one jurisdiction, instead of having each jurisdiction manage them separately. 

“I think these are the types of issues we could tackle through the Australian Fisheries Management Forum – a meeting of the heads of fisheries from each jurisdiction. We already share information about our challenges through the forum, but the group could also drive change.” 

Competition for marine resources 

Access to marine resources is a well-recognised and ongoing issue for fisheries. Competition is increasing from the expansion of aquaculture, new oil and gas projects, desalination plants, and potential changes following marine park reviews over the next five years. Added to this is the emergence of ocean-based wind farms.  

“There is a rapid program of planning and investment in offshore wind power with areas designated in both state and Commonwealth waters. Many areas good for offshore wind farms are also very good for fishing,” Wez explains.

“In areas where wind developments are approved, it is unlikely fishing will continue in the same way it does today.” 

He says it will be essential that approval processes for these competing developments consider the productivity of fishing grounds and minimise impacts. 

“Where other uses, such as marine parks, or potentially wind farms, provide additional environmental protection for marine species, we also need to review our regulatory footprint to ensure it’s still appropriate for the reduced size and risk of commercial fishing,” he adds. 

Impacts of climate change 

Climate change represents a high-priority threat to the health of fish stocks, as waters warm, acidity increases, ocean currents change, and disruptive weather becomes more frequent.  

“We are seeing fish in areas where they've never been before and not seeing them in areas where they used to be.  

“Climate change is already affecting the productivity of some species including the redistribution of prey species, and increased susceptibility of larvae carried on ocean currents, which is an issue for many Commonwealth fisheries.” 

Just as species are moving and adapting, Wez highlights the need for management adaptation.  

“Management regulations and policies will need to change to cope with the changes already being experienced. For example, we have commercial species popping up in Tasmania that have never been there before, and Tasmanian fishers are not licensed to catch them.  

“We’ll need to fix things like this. Climate change may well prove the catalyst for a major rethink of jurisdictional arrangements and stock management.  

“It’s also clear that pressures other than fishing are affecting stocks, so managing fishers alone is not the answer,” says Wez. “We need to take other impacts into account in managing our fisheries effectively.”  

Effective fisheries monitoring 

Critical to management is the ongoing monitoring of fisheries and data collection for stock assessments. 

A comprehensive review of monitoring and assessment is currently underway across major Commonwealth fisheries. This review aims to determine if previous practices and methods are now inadequate due to changes in management and fishing practices that have reduced catch data for certain species. 

Reduced catch data has increased the need for additional, independently sourced data, which can drive up the costs of stock assessments. 

Wez says new data-gathering and stock assessment techniques are being developed, but he believes a transition period with parallel assessments using both old and new techniques will be required to give industry and governments confidence in new methods. 

“Also, all sectors can do a better job of collecting, collating and sharing information in the marine environment to assist with innovative monitoring and working together with the many players operating in the marine environment.” 

Improving our fisheries  

Wez recognizes that none of the issues he has flagged have simple solutions. Addressing them will require a collective rethink from governments and agencies such as AFMA and FRDC about management practices and the science and resources needed to achieve a more profitable and sustainable future for Australia’s wild fisheries. 

“These are really challenging discussions for industry and government, but we all have a common experience of the issues that are transpiring, and I am looking forward to contributing to these discussions,” says Wez.